Channeling Our Inner Vortex Energy – Sedona Hiking
From our home base in Flagstaff, AZ, we made the hour long drive down to Sedona for an evening hiking trip. Sedona is a beautiful desert town surrounded by red rock buttes, canyons, and forests. Besides the amazing landscape, Sedona is famous for its unique energy fields and a variety of alternative medicine/healing options. The drive between Flagstaff and Sedona has a couple options – one more interstate focused and one that winds through highway 89A. Both are scenic, but the 89A route cuts you right through the natural landscape with very tight turns and has a vehicle length limit of 50ft (don’t take an RV on this!).
The focus of our Sedona hiking trip was on the popular Cathedral Rock area. This red rock formation with multiple buttes and amazing views is one of the most frequented areas around Sedona. The top of the hike is also home to one of Sedona’s sacred vortex sites – thought to be swirling centers of energy that are conducive to healing, meditation and self-exploration. The hike itself proved to be more challenging than we anticipated, but it was fun to do and a great workout. The route is only around a mile and a half in and out, but goes up aggressively around 800ft. There are many stopping points along the way that people choose to stop and take photos at without going all the way up. About half of this hike is making your way up rather slick and steep rock faces, but easy enough to get through with nice hiking shoes and occasionally scrambling using your hands. There are a few sections, though, that are a bit more technical like supporting yourself wedged between two rock walls on a tight climb. We may not have felt the vortex energy, but the Corgis certainly enjoyed taking it all in and got a lot of attention in their K9 Sport Sacks along the way!
Given the popularity of the hike, parking fills up fast. We arrived around 4pm on a Friday (in May) and there was a traffic officer blocking the access road to the parking lots. We were told to circle around and come back in a few minutes and we were let in (they were waiting for some cars to leave). Once at the lots, they were still full, but another traffic officer got us a spot after a few minutes waiting. We did see people arriving on shuttles from town and so that looks to be an option as well. The good thing for us is that the majority of people don’t complete the full hike and just stop for some photos on the lower areas and turn around. Once we made it to the top of the climb, there were only a couple people there with us.
Once completing our hiking (took around 2 hours with some breaks) we then headed into Sedona to explore the town a bit. We didn’t have much time, but there were a lot of nice shops and food options on the main drag. As usual, we opted to go to the dog friendly Sedona Brewing Company where we had some tasty beers and good food while on the patio with some great views!
We hope this helps you plan your next trip! Check out more of our outdoor adventures here.